Washington Post: Mandela criticizes Bush on Iraq; New Nato countries declaration
Iraq-European Union, Politics, 1/31/2003

"Nelson Mandela, the former president of South Africa and an internationally respected statesman, lashed out at President Bush's stance on Iraq today, saying the U.S. leader had no foresight and could not think properly," the Washington Post reported Yesterday.

Meantime, the US and UK efforts to show that they are not alone in their position against Iraq have produced a declaration by some European countries. The declaration, interestingly, includes the new members of the Nato alliance, in what some see as a showing soliderity, and a pay-off for their inclusion into Nato.The Washington Post reported also, that "Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar of Spain and the British prime minister, Tony Blair, led the drive for the declaration, which was also signed by Italy, Denmark, Portugal, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, but pointedly excluded France and Germany, two of the countries that have expressed the strongest reservations about military action. European Union officials were also not consulted, and the current EU president, Prime Minister Costas Simitis of Greece, issued a statement strongly criticizing the declaration."

The Washington Post reported "At a news conference, the two prime ministers said the West should seek a U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing the use of force before attacking Iraq, though Blair emphasized that an "unreasonable" veto should not be allowed to prevent military action." The paper added that "Analysts said both countries would react with anger over the declaration, but that it would also reinforce the effort to ease the United States back to the Security Council for U.N. approval of military action. "

Previous Stories:
  Iraqi envoys dispatched to Europe   (9/2/2002)
  Solana getting rid of Iraq's president is good for the region   (7/30/2002)
  European delegation sees results of sanctions on Iraq   (4/19/2002)

Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.

Search